Free ebooks by indie authors are getting kind of a bad reputation lately, and while it's true that you have to dig through a lot of earth to find a little gold, this is true for "traditionally published" books too! I don't want this thread to be confused with 'Author Self-Promotions' - there's a place for that here - "http://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=226" - but I do want to recommend some books I found that I enjoyed, and make some comments about them - not reviews, and no 'star' ratings involved. I will say one or two things I liked about them, and I will not mention any book of which I have nothing good to say.

My own mama never told me "if you don't have anything nice to say ...", but in the spirit of someone's mama having said that to somebody else at some time, here we go - my recent reading list of free indie author ebooks:

Broken Bulbs - Broken Bulbs by Eddie Wright
One thing I always go for is originality, and this book has got that. Two things I always go for are originality and humor, and this book has got those. Three things ... okay, never mind. It IS kind of gruesome and gritty, but also hilarious, following a screenwriter who needs direct injections of inspiration from his 'fixer', Bonnie. I loved the interior screenplays and the book made me laugh out loud several times, and I almost never do that.

3 - by Moxie Mezcal
I really enjoyed the stories in this collection. 'Home Movies' is about a possible snuff flick discovered by a woman working in an adult video store, and she decides to investigate (bad idea!), and the other involves a journalistic hoax with a nasty twist - both of these were intriguing and kept me reading in excitement and anticipation and did not disappoint.

The American Book of the Dead - by Henry Baum
I really enjoyed the characters and their interactions and the modest, slightly embarrassed narrator.

The Defective Detective: Cat Chaser - by Adam Maxwell
Very funny. Funny all the time, in fact. The book features a newbie detective who suffers from narcolepsy, so he's continually falling asleep at inappropriate times. Since it's told in the first person, neither he nor we have the full story of what's going on at any moment. Very clever, very funny. Nicely done.

Back(stabbed) in Brooklyn - by Lenox Parker
Some really great dialog here - more than anything else, that's what I enjoyed, and I read on her blog that she's most interested in screen writing. I can see that. She's got a fine ear for it.

Please. anyone. add any others that you've found and would like to recommend (and are not your own or your buddy's!). I know they're out there!

IMHO the very best short story writer ever in any language. Maupassant does in a few pages what no one else can do no matter how many words they string together - evoke original characters in bright bold excruciating scenes filled with drama and revelation.

Spinning themes familiar to fairy tales of all cultures but with distinctively Japanese turns, from their perpetual ocean imagery to their traditional mores and manners, and surprising resolutions you would never even dream of finding in Grimm's or Arabian Nights or Russian, Italian, Native American or Chinese or any other stories.

As a Japanese cult gets ready to stage a massive attack, they are forced to recruit a secretive young bio-chemist from the West. They hide out on the fringes of Tokyo, taking care of the daily business of preparing for the apocalypse, until the foreigner's secret past starts to come to light and threaten their future dreams."</i>

I'm enjoying his ambivalent and ambiguous writing style, where sentences stubbornly undermine themselves continually. It's quite engaging and deservedly one of the top ten most downloaded free original ebooks from Feedbooks.

<i>Sitting at the top of a Ferris wheel overlooking the Boston skyline, Josh’s life takes an unexpected turn, and things will never be the same. Along with the many surprises on his life’s new path, he’ll come to take life advice from a family of ducks, get in a bloody war with a dog, lose his job over a spilled drink, wake up in the hospital, apply to work at an adult-themed novelty bakery, and find out that people often aren’t what they seem. When you're at the top of the world, there's nowhere to go but down.</i>

This book is just a fresh and funny romp from the very first sentence on. No wonder it's the most downloaded free original ebook from Feedbooks. People love this book. If you have a sense of humor, you will too.

This is one short story I had to read all at once. From the start a gripping suspenseful tale of desire and necessity, courage and risk, of one man's feverish devotion to his small daughter and her future. Highly recommended

Somebody Comes to Town, Somebody Leaves Town - Cory Doctorow
Just a really different, intriguing book (it includes characters whose father is a mountain and whose mother is a washing machine)

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom - Cory Doctorow
Set in a future where 'whuffie' (similar to the karma on this site) decides what you can or can't buy or do. Interesting concept!

Geek Mafia and Geek Mafia: Mile Zero - Rick Dakan
These were free (legally) when I picked them up some time ago, not sure now. Nicely written anti-big corporation type thrillers. I thoroughly enjoyed them.

BTW, I would second the nominations for Moxie Mezcal's Concrete Underground and Wesley Alison's My Robot Girlfriend.